Kidnaping Ordeal Ends With Police Shooting Suspect

A college student’s 12-hour kidnaping ordeal ended Tuesday morning when police shot one of the kidnaping suspects and arrested another as the two attempted to pick up a ransom payment in Inglewood, police said.

Michael Anthony Thompson, 19, was in serious condition at UCLA Medical Center with a gunshot wound in the chest. Thompson, of Culver City, and Jeffrey Powell, 19, of Inglewood, were arrested on suspicion of kidnaping for ransom, Inglewood Police Sgt. Harold Moret said.

The two men are accused of abducting Alvin Friedman, 18, of Inglewood, a student at UCLA, near his home Monday night and holding him bound and gagged in a motel room overnight. Friedman was beaten during his captivity but is in good condition and did not have to be hospitalized, Moret said.

Friedman knew Powell because the two grew up in the same neighborhood, but they were not friends, Sgt. Robert Snowden said.

Police said Thompson accosted Friedman at rifle point about 10:15 p.m. Monday as Friedman went from his home to his car. Friedman was taken to a motel at 39th Street and Western Avenue in Los Angeles, where he was bound, gagged and held overnight by Thompson and Powell, police said.

Friedman’s parents called Inglewood police after receiving a phone call at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday demanding $15,000 cash ransom for their son’s release, officers said. With three FBI agents providing advice, police drew up a plan and told the victim’s father to follow the kidnaper’s instructions to drop off the money at a bus stop that morning.

Officer Hidden

The father drove up to the bus stop at 11:50 a.m. with a police officer hidden under a blanket in the back seat of his car. Twenty other officers and a Sheriff’s Department helicopter provided backup.

Before the elder Friedman could drop off the money and drive away as instructed, Thompson unexpectedly appeared at the door of the car and began to pull it open, police said. Fearing that Thompson was armed and might harm the victim’s father, police said, the officer hiding in the back seat shot Thompson.

Thompson turned out to be unarmed, police said.

Powell, who was waiting nearby with the younger Friedman and saw the shooting, pushed the blindfolded and bound youth into the street and drove off, police said. But he was arrested after a short chase in the car and on foot, Snowden said.

The two men were held in lieu of $110,000 bail.